Anti-SEZ Struggle in Maharashtra

The Peasants have won the first phase but still have a long way to go!

On 13th December, 2009 a conference was organised by various parties
and groups engaged in anti-SEZ (Special Economic Zone), displacement
and land acquisition struggle in New Delhi. This correspondent of
Revolutionary Democracy also attended the conference where we got a
chance to interact with various activists and comrades struggling
against the onslaught of Indian state against the poor people who are
going to be evicted if these plans are materialised. Below is the
excerpt of interview that was conducted with comrade Shashi Sonawane of
MahaMumbai Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti (Greater Mumbai Peasant’s Struggle
Committee), who have been successfully waging a struggle against the
proposed 35,000 acre (141.64 sq. km.) multi-purpose Special Economic
Zone promoted by India’s largest private sector enterprise with annual
revenues in excess of US$ 28 billion – the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance
Group of industries.

RD: Please tell
our readers about the anti-SEZ movement that you have been waging
against the MahaMumbai SEZ and also about your group which is waging it?

Shashi Sonawane: We are waging the
anti-SEZ movement against theMahaMumbai SEZ (Greater
Mumbai SEZ) of Mukesh Ambani of Reliance industries. This multi-purpose
SEZ is proposed to come up in Raigarh district of Maharashtra
with a total area of thirty five thousand acres of land covering a
total of 45 villages in three tehsils of Pen, Panvel and Uran. On
17th-18th April 2006, on an invitation of some local lawyers we went to
the area where this proposed SEZ was to come up. The collector of
Raigarh had said that all lands would be acquired in 45 days. The
government tactic was to send notices to the land holders of the area
under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and then acquire
the lands in one go. Another important point worth noting is that
during the initial phase Mukesh Ambani was not directly in the picture,
but all the activities for this SEZ were being performed by another
person called Nikhil Gandhi whom now we can say was acting as the front
man of Ambani. But after we started the agitation Nikhil Gandhi went
into the background and Mukesh Ambani himself came in front. Mukesh
Ambani adopted a 2 pronged strategy: while on one hand he along with
the help of the administration was involved in land acquisition by
invoking the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 on the other hand he hired
agents in villages as well as appointed ex-IAS (Indian Administrative
Service) officers and other officials like Tehsildars and others to buy
land directly from the peasants.

As I
just mentioned we got involved in this struggle just after the land
acquiring notification was issued. We formed the MahaMumbai Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti with
Advocate Datta Patil (former leader of the opposition) as its
President, Advocate Dhananjay Patil, Working President and Advocate
Meghnath Patil as its Secretary, Justice P.B. Sawant and Justice
Kolse-Patil along with Com. Vilas Sonawane as its advisors.

Our
organisation the Yuva Bharat along with Lokshashan Andolan of Kolse
Patil, Retired Justice P.B. Sawant and comrade Vilas started the
agitation against this SEZ. In this struggle against the SEZ and
against the biggest and wealthiest Indian industrialist, Com. Vilas
Sonawane played pivotal role in formulating the strategy and tactics
and leading the masses.

RD: How did the struggle start?

SS: When
we first visited the area we almost thought we would never be
successful as we were fighting against the biggest industrial
conglomerate of the country which had the full backing of the state as
well as the government at the centre. But then we looked at the land
acquisition act and the various provisions of the act. It is to be
noted that this act was promulgated during the colonial regime of the
British way back in 1894. So, imagine a law enacted by the colonial
power more than a century ago is being used today by the various state
governments with the active connivance of the central government to
evict the poor and marginal farmers.

So
we conducted the struggle at various levels, from fighting a legal case
against the land acquisition to educating the peasants about the
impending ruin that they face if the proposed SEZ is created. Thus we
conducted this struggle simultaneously on different fronts. There were
two broad aspects of the struggle. The legal aspect and second the mass
education and mobilisation, according to section 4 of this law, when a
land is to be acquired then the existing owner can submit his/her
objection. There has to be a proper hearing on objections, only then may
the matter be pursued further. This entire process has to be finished
in a time frame of one year.

Though the act came up to serve the interests of the colonial rulers
and has been shamelessly used today to serve the interests of the big
corporate houses, we tried to take advantage of some of the provisions
of the act itself to block the acquisition process.

We
studied the case of each and every farmer and helped them prepare their
objection report. Each farmer submitted individually his own objection
that naturally differed with that of others, thus every objection that
was submitted raised different issues. The authority then had to
redress this grievance individually.

When
the proceeding started on hearing the objections raised by the farmers,
we took a morcha
of
1000 to 2000 farmers and they were well trained about what had to be
said
during the proceeding. The authority then had to give time to
individual farmer and had to hear their case separately which went on
from one to two hours for each farmer. This slowed down the process of
land acquisition.

Seeing the slow acquisition process Ambani went to court and the case
was transferred to the Supreme Court. After the passing of one year the
land acquisition was not completed, then Ambani went to the High
court to extend the time limit but we countered this move of his by
arguing that already the case was in Supreme Court and thus a new case
could not be filed. The Supreme Court refused to give an extension and
asked Ambani to go to the government. When all this process was
happening the election dates were announced and the government did not
go ahead according to the wish of Ambani, hence he had to withdraw his
petition.

The
second aspect was that we had to conduct a consistent struggle on mass
mobilisation and awareness. When we started the struggle we had thought
that people would not give their land. But the people or a majority of
them were inclined to sell their land. This shows the sad plight of
agrarian situation in the area and India in general. It is worth
mentioning here that some of the farmers of the area had given land to
the container yard that has been constructed nearby, and the farmers
saw this as an opportunity to earn some extra money. We had to convince
them of the consequence of giving the land away, The real estate price
was explained to them, We gave example of the Navi Mumbai, where the
CIDCO had acquired land in the 1970s at Rupees Thirty Two thousand per
acre and sold it at 3.50 Lakhs per acre to the real estate developers, so
the original inhabitant of the area got nothing but displacement.

Another point worth remembering is that this area is the last bastion
of some of the earliest inhabitants of the Mumbai, the Agri caste
people. These people were evicted from Mumbai by the British, from Navi
Mumbai by the government and now they are facing eviction from the
corporate house.

We
also had to bring the socio-cultural history of Raigarh and had to tell
them that your baap-dada (ancestors’)
land did not sell them and become landless but instead they should do
self development. Raigarh has a long history of struggle. It was here
that under the leadership of Narayan Nagu Patil that a struggle for
land to tillers was carried on. Raigarh is probably the only district
in Maharashtra where the land reforms have been effectively carried out
due to this legacy.

Thus
a cultural renaissance of sort was initiated. We met with huge success
in that today the people are not ready to give their land and become
displaced once again. They are ready to resist and are resisting.

RD: Medha
Patkar and others had also raised this issue? Please let our readers
know their strategy and simultaneously the response of the Left and
other forces?

SS: When we
were waging our struggle by preparing and helping the farmers to
formulate their objections, Medha Patkar came into picture. She held a
public meeting in July-August 2006, in Pen. And she, as usual, raised
the issue of rehabilitation, and got a lot of media attention as has
been the case with these NGOs and their leaders.

Her
argument was that if for the Narmada dam evacuees, till date the
rehabilitation has not happened then how could it be done by this SEZ
which is a private project? So, how do we ensure that proper
rehabilitation would happen in this case. But we opposed this stand and
said that there is no question of giving land so the question of
rehabilitation did not arise. We gave our first slogan ‘Nahi-Nahin Kadachi Nahin; Amcha Jameenee Denaar Nahin’ (No, no never, we would not give away our land). And the second slogan that we gave was ‘Shetkaryaneha Ekjuticha Vijay Aso!’ Long Live Peasant Unity!

The NGO forces had formed a separate 24-Gaon Bachoo Samiti (Save
24 villages committee). They had a ready-made objection printed that
they asked the farmers of this area to deposit and as they were all
having the same objections their entire case was heard in one go. As a
result Reliance has been able to get land in this area. In another
anti-SEZ struggle which was headed by Medha Patkar and other NGO forces
in Chakan, they only raised the issue of rehabilitation and not of
resistance to the SEZ. As a result today the struggle has almost
fizzled out.

When
the SEZ was declared then all the parties including the Left parties
like CPI-M and PWP did not resist, rather the PWP had initially
supported the SEZ and declared that the SEZ is good for the people.
Later in the wake of our struggle it had to backtrack. Raigarh is
traditionally a PWP bastion. But in local politics the PWP has an
alliance with the rightist-communalist parties like the Shiv Sena. It
is a common saying that in Raigarh the Red Flag and the Saffron
flag have a tie up. Similar has been the role of the other
parliamentary left parties, which I would come to later.

The
reformist left forces led by the CPI (M) and the Peasants’ and Workers’
Party (PWP) have also joined hands with the NGO forces along with
organisations like the People’s Democratic Front of India and have
formed the Jagtilakaran Virodhi Kriti Samiti (Anti-Globalisation Activist Committee) and the Anti-SEZ committee is part of this.

The
reformist left along with the NGOs tried to hijack and diffuse the
agitation by bringing in Sitaram Yechury. Sitaram Yechury along with
the leaders of PWP and some NGOs had a meeting in Raigarh. We made our
stand clear that we support any party or organisation that opposes this
SEZ. But we also said that when the SEZ act was passed by parliament
then it was having even the CPI (M) support. We also demanded that
Yechury as a Rajya Sabha member should move a private member bill in
Rajya Sabha against the SEZ and declare this in the public meeting.

In a
meeting held by the CPI (M), Yechury said that no fertile land (land
with 2 crops) should be acquired for a SEZ. Now the point is in Raigarh
there is only single crop land, there are no two crop lands! Apart from
this the farmers do not want to give away their land. So this
shows the real intention of CPI (M). This was the reality of the
intervention of the CPI (M).

RD: What is the current state of the movement?

SS: After
Mukesh Ambani’s withdrawal from the land acquisition act, we can say we
have won a battle of sorts yet the farmers of the area are not in a
victorious mood as they see this as a ‘one step backward’ policy of
Reliance who would come back again with even greater vigour and this
time they would be armed with new laws and have the backing of
government policy. As you may know, the government is trying to
bring a new land acquisition act in the next session of the parliament.
This act may give the capitalist-industrialists new means to acquire
the lands of the peasants, and help the industrialists even better.
Thus the war is still to be won, and the coming days may witness even
greater struggles between the peasants and the capitalist class that
would intensify with each passing day. But people are also ready to
resist against any impending onslaught by the corporate government
against their right to livelihood.

The important aspect of the MahaMumbai SEZ struggle
has been that the farmers have completely rejected the NGOs and the
other such forces who wanted to reduce this struggle to that of only
rehabilitation. The other political parties are trying to do their
politics, and we have no issue with that. In fact we have categorically
told out supporters that they may support any party but when it comes
to the struggle they should leave their party affiliation aside and
struggle as one. We believe that the fight is for maati (land) and should be kept away from party.

The
grand alliance of PWP, CPI (M), CPI, other parliamentary and
non-parliamentary forces including the PDFI along with the NGOs is
working in tandem to divert the anti-SEZ agitation by reducing its
anti-imperialist nature to the question of displacement and proper
rehabilitation within the framework of the Welfare State for which
responsibility the present ruling class has shamelessly given up. But
unfortunately they are all moving closer to the agenda of the NGO
forces which we believe are not a real alternative nor are they
interested in protecting the land of the poor farmers.

The
coming days are going to be crucial ones which would decide the future
course of struggle.

RD: The future of the anti-SEZ struggle and the need for a united all India coordination forum.

SS: We
like other anti-SEZ forces believe that in a broader sense all the SEZs
are nothing but zones of exploitation of resources, both human and
natural. But at the same time every SEZ struggle has its own
peculiarities, hence every struggle against it would have different
character, based on the concrete local situation.

We
also believe that the anti-SEZ struggle cannot continue for long until
the SEZ act is scrapped. The initial success that we have achieved at
the MahaMumbai SEZ
has definitely acted as a fillip for the other anti-SEZ struggles being
waged in other parts of the country. It has a positive impact on them
and we hope that we would get similar success in other struggles also
across India. This anti-SEZ convention would help the other movements
to come and share their experience and also help other movements to
share from each other’s experiences. The forum should at the same time
not degenerate into just a lip service academic platform and a
proper coordination would need to be done if we have to collectively
succeed.